This text is part of the special Real Estate section
The real estate sector must make its green revolution, according to Natalie Voland. The president of Quo Vadis Property Management, which manages 1.5 million square feet of commercial rental space for SMEs and artists, has made it her mission to decarbonize buildings in Montreal. And that’s also why her job as an entrepreneur no longer quite satisfies her. Under the direction of Professor Ursula Eicker in particular, she undertook a doctorate with the Institute for New Generation Cities at Concordia University, where she joined the team of the new building decarbonization accelerator.
The idea is to get promoters, bankers, civil servants, architects, engineers and lawyers to work together. “Because, she says, if we ask entrepreneurs to manage on their own to reach the 2025 and 2040 targets of the Montreal Climate Plan, they will never get there. »
Even with the best will, it would be impossible anyway, she explains. “The challenges to overcome are multifactorial. We ask them to innovate, that’s fine, but not everyone involved follows suit. For example, lending banks do not tolerate the risk associated with innovations. And how do you reduce the ratio of parking spaces on a project if the public transport service does not follow? »
At the end of December, the Léger firm revealed the results of a vast survey sponsored by the Fonds immobilier de solidarité FTQ, the Société d’habitation du Québec, the Professional Association of Quebec Real Estate Brokers (APCIQ) and the Service d’habitation de the City of Montreal. Among other topics, the 6,755 respondents had to express themselves on the importance of the environment in their choice of real estate.
We learn that almost half of them (42%) are convinced that their real estate decisions have no impact on the environment. And of the 56% who would be willing to pay a premium to make their home greener, only 7% would be willing to do so unconditionally — the rest would hope to recoup the premium through other savings.
This type of requirement adds to the constraints presented by the challenge of carbon neutrality in real estate. Climate plans, academic studies or urban plans that do not take this into account are doomed to failure. “You can’t just say, ‘Put 150 solar panels on the roof’ or ‘Wait four years for your zoning change.’ It takes everyone around the table. And developers need to cooperate with competitors instead of always reinventing the wheel. »
lead by example
Natalie Voland is a rare bird in the real estate industry. A double graduate from McGill in African studies and social work, she was working with burn victims in a Montreal hospital when she saw herself catapulted to the head of the family business in 1996 to replace her sick father at short notice.
The Latin name of his company, Quo Vadis, means “Where are you going? “. Very early on, the former social worker oriented her business towards her own values to ensure the well-being of tenants, with common areas and business choices in line with her social and ecological values: advanced energy-efficient management, mandatory recycling, reasonable rents, daycare, gym, additional services. “That makes sense to me. »
In 2013, Quo Vadis Property Management became the first Quebec company to receive the B Corp certification awarded by the American NPO B Lab — B for “beneficial”. This certification, periodically reviewed, recognizes companies that act in the public interest, ie for the good of society and the environment. Natalie Voland now wants to go further with her real estate projects in Repentigny, Saint-Jérôme and Lévis. “They will be affordable, carbon neutral and will promote multi-residential diversity. We rarely find these three criteria together, but we will get there. »
Within the Institute, the promoter-doctoral student describes herself as a “translator” between the language of academics and that of promoters. His return to university is explained by the fact that his company began long ago to seek answers through the work of academics, whether through its own initiatives or with the Quartier de l’innovation of Montreal.
“This organization was an extraordinary consultation structure that brought together promoters, universities and governments. It allowed researchers to work on reality, and I was able to use them to find answers to real problems. » For example, what is the energy-optimal proportion of windows for a multi-residential building in the climate here? “We found the answer: 35%. My company would never have had the resources to establish this on its own. But here we know. »
The challenge of carbon neutrality consists in asking all the questions about the energy performance of buildings, their envelope, the type of material and their design. It is a question of designing buildings with local materials, which will last a long time and which will be able to change vocation at lower cost.
She gives the example of the beam system of buildings, which varies for residential, commercial or parking construction. However, in a perspective of carbon neutrality, it would be necessary to build taking into account the future changes of vocation of the buildings. “Otherwise, we have to smash everything when a building changes vocation, which is disastrous for the carbon footprint,” she explains.
“That’s the kind of question I’ve been asking my architects for 20 years, and they’re starting to see me coming. At first, no one understood why I was questioning certain precepts, but all real estate stakeholders must change their habits if we want to meet the challenge of carbon neutrality. »
An eco-district project in Métis-sur-Mer
This special content was produced by the Special Publications team of the Duty, pertaining to marketing. The drafting of Duty did not take part.